Page 99 of Blood of Hercules
Titus’s crony, a muscular boy with a shaved head, was lying on the ground behind me with his eyes closed.
“Leo,” Augustus said louder, but the boy didn’t move. Poco chittered on top of Augustus’s head with chalk in his hands. “Someone please help him,” Augustus said with a shake of his head.
Is he asleep or dead?
“LEO, WAKE THE FUCK UP!” General Cleandro roared, and his hawk (demon) shrieked like a banshee.
My left ear rang with horrible feedback.
Not dramatic at all.
As Leo sputtered awake, Professor Augustus sighed again. Poco got bored and shoved the chalk into his mouth (I wonder if that tastes any good).
General Cleandro pressed the button on his awful black box. “TIME FOR THE CIRCUIT!” he bellowed with glee.
Time distorted, as it was known to do in hell.
I blinked.
The sun burned hot and bright in the sky, illuminating the frosted dirt near the top of the mountain. In the valley below, the Dolomites Coliseum was the size of a child’s toy.
I looked down. Red footprints followed me on the jagged rocks.
Someone’s stalking me. I looked around nervously, then grimaced. It was my footprints.
We hobbled forward slowly as a group.
My legs burned and lungs heaved.
I prayed with everything I had, but in a highly upsetting turn of events, a Titan did notsuddenly appear and violently murder me.
There’s no justice left in this cruel world.
Dark times indeed.
I didn’t remember making it to the top, didn’t remember stumbling down the other side, didn’t remember half drowning as I swam pathetically through the river, didn’t remember Kharon glaring at me as I crawled onto the riverbank.
Or maybe I did remember, and I wanted to forget.
This time there were enough foil blankets after the swim for everyone, but I was too tired to grab one.
Augustus wrapped one around my shoulders aggressively and shouted something.
I blinked.
We staggered into the classroom. In front of me, General Cleandro shoved cups into the initiates’ faces.
Augustus swooped in and grasped my chin tightly. He tipped water past my lips. My throat was so raw from breathing haggardly that itburned. I tried to pull away, but his fingers tightened.
The rest of the initiates were only forced to take a small sip, but Augustus didn’t let me go until I’d finished the entire cup. He glowered and whispered something into my left ear about Chthonics. Thankfully, I couldn’t understand what he said.
“Time for your first test,” Professor Pine said after we’d reclaimed our spots on the floor as his raven stared at us with intelligent eyes.
Pine handed out paper.
I stared blankly down at it.
Equations?With numb fingers I picked up the pen. It took multiple tries to get the ink to stay on the page where I wanted it to.
